A very boring blog post! Day 28-32

Day 28 Thursday January 30th, 2014

Rain. Rain. Rain and more rain.

Welcome to Florida where everything can flood in a matter of hours. We obviously didn't ride today because of the rain and flooding so instead we got a full day of lectures! 

At 7AM we set up a Jillian Micheals workout video in the barn so that we could at least get some fitness in.

One lecture was with Jaime Nunn on clicker training, her horses can do all sorts of tricks, including fetch!
We watched the Schleese saddle fitting video.
Remember I mentioned how much we all LOVE lunch and learn? Well it was cancelled today, totally devastating :-P

But other than the lectures our day was pretty layed back.

 

 Day 29 Friday January 31st, 2014

7AM fitness and 7 minute ab circuit. Burn baby burn!
The rings were still too wet to ride in so I just hand walked Display to get him out and moving.
Went over to Global to watch some of the competitors school their horses.
1:30 Braiding lecture with WITee Katrina Sadis.

At 5PM the people from Schleese came and gave us a in depth presentation on how to fit a saddle and target areas to pay attention to. We were able to draw on a horse with chalk so that we could really see where and how the saddle needed to sit.

Day 30 Saturday February 1st, 2014

 

For fitness today we went to nearby Okeeheelee park, they have a 1 mile fitness trail. Their are 30 stations along this trail to stretch, work upper body, abs and legs. It was one well rounded workout!
Once back to the barn we watched a DVD on The Masterson Method, if anyone is looking to relieve tension in their horses I highly recommend this!
I lunged Display for a bit before I got on since he had been in for a few days and his hocks were finally feeling better. He decided to jump around for awhile but then settled down, once I got on we just did a bit of walking.

Day 31 Sunday February 2nd, 2014

 We all got to the barn early this morning so that we could get all the chores done before heading to Catherine Haddad's farm. She opened up her stable to us and the public for an "open training day".
Before she started riding she fed us breakfast and talked a bit with us about mental fitness and how its just as important as physical fitness. She gave us some examples of how she focuses which include chanting and meditation. Then she showed us a progression of horses from 6 years old to her international Grand Prix horse.

Rode Display today, we only did a little work since he has to gradually come back into work. Then the lucky guy got to go out overnight!
Quiz on lectures today!

Day 32 Monday February 3rd, 2014

 "Day off"
Worked for Jackie 7:30-12 then went and hung out with some of the WIT girls till I had to go back at 3.


Woohoo! Two blog posts in one day!

Days 21-27

Day 21 Thursday January 23rd, 2014 

7AM workout with Andrea Landis, talk about getting your glutes and thighs working! It was fantastic! She mixed up the exercises and had us do some new things that I’ll be using to keep my routine fresh. 
So we didn’t have such a great lesson today. Display was really behind the leg, didn’t want to go forward and was really tripping behind. Lendon and I both agree that it might have something to do with his hocks. I bet you can about imagine how the changes went, canter halfpasses were good; the rest of the work was just a bit stuck. Around 11:30 was lunch and learn, today’s topic was soft tissue and tendon repair. In case I haven’t mentioned, getting free food while living in Florida is a HUGE plus, thank heavens for lunch and learn! 

Day 22 Friday January 24th, 2014 

Display felt awesome today! Right from the beginning I tried to push him really forward and in front of my leg. Then we went on to shoulder-ins and half passes. I tried something new today: instead of just doing the sideways “stuff” and him getting duller and loosing the forward I’d do a movement then send him on a straight line and push him really forward. It helped get him sharper and more eager to go into the movements, super exciting and fun to ride! Changes were pretty good, doing them on the quarter line makes a HUGE difference. I think once we turn on the diagonal and I start thinking changes he automatically takes over, on the quarterline I have a bit more control but it also proves how hard it is to keep on a straight line while trying to do multiple changes! Our lecture of the day was with Andrea Landis on life after highschool. She shared her story with us and gave some advice on how it would be when we got out into the real world. In the afternoon we all got to go watch the Grand Prix Freestyles. That’s the awesome thing about Florida, we have SO many top international riders right in our backyard. 

Day 23 Saturday January 25th, 2014 

One good day sometimes leads to a bad, had a really rough ride. Display was really behind the leg and felt just plain uncomfortable. Tried to do a little bit of everything to see if we could work it out but it didn’t get better. By the end of our ride we just worked in the walk, stretching and coming round just to do something productive. I made a call to one of the vets to get his hocks injected ASAP. Lecture was again with Andrea Landis, this time on anatomy and physiology. I learned a ton about anatomy and how horse and human bodies work. That evening the WITee’s “Aunt” Candy took us out to dinner and then a few of us went to jumpers with her. For those that don’t know, Aunt Candy is the one that made it possible for me to be here, she adopts us “kids” every year. Definitely the sweetest person I’ve ever met! 

Day 24 Sunday January 26th, 2014 

Just tack walked Display today, there was no use trying to work him if he was uncomfortable. Since there was no pressure I rode him in the snaffle for the first time ever since I’ve been riding him. He was actually really good and we both lived through it, I think he enjoyed the change.
 No lecture today. 
The vet was suppose to come out this afternoon but had to reschedule for tomorrow. 
Worked in the afternoon for Jackie Brooks. 

Day 25 Monday January 27th, 2014 

“Day off” typical Monday! I worked for Jackie in till around noon then was able to go home and take a nice power nap. My gas tank was running on low so it was definitely needed. The vet came out to inject Display, a little tranquilizer and a lighter wallet later: he should start feeling like a young spring chicken again after a few days off!  

Day 26 Tuesday January 28th, 2014 

I apologize if the next few days are boring! 

 Fitness at 7, did I mention I’m going to look like a fitness instructor when I return to the frigid North? Display had the day off.

We all got to go watch the USEF pipeline clinic at Global. The clinic consisted of a FEI Pony rider, FEI Junior rider, FEI Young rider, FEI Brentina Cup rider, a couple young horses and some elite riders. They all trained with Debbie MacDonald, Scott Hassler, Robert Dover and Jeremy Steinberg. The clinic organizers graciously allowed us WITee’s to join in on the pipeline’s lecture on Sports physiology. 

Day 27 Wednesday January 29th, 2014 

7AM Fitness: Stretching and coordination. That was definitely something people should have bought tickets to watch. Just because we ride horses doesn’t mean we are the most coordinated and graceful! Hand walked Display, poor guy is stuck inside and can’t be worked. Thankfully he hasn’t started tearing down his stall. 

Again went to watch the pipeline clinic.

 Lecture was with WITee Kya Enderson on crosstraining.

Finally got this to post! Hope everyone is staying warm!

Day 17-20 and Pictures!

Day 17 Sunday January 19^th, 2014

In the morning a group of us drove to Loxahatchee to help prepare for the FEI trainers conference that is happening over the next two days.
At 2PM our Dressage Sport Boots arrived so we were able to take a few pictures for their website and ads. After we had a lecture with Judy Westlake who is also from Maine, she talked with us about rider biomechanics and helped us work on the balimo stool. Judy really made us realize how crooked we all are, the stretches she showed us were also really cool.
I rode in a late lesson, I started him out really stretchy and long so he’d relax and loosen through his body then went immediately to the canter. We really worked on the transitions within the canter, forward and then right back to hopefully help the adjustability when we got to the changes.  The right to left change was good but the left to right is still messy, we did get a few decent ones though.

Day 18 Monday January 20^th, 2014

No day off for us this week! Today was the first day of the FEI trainers’ conference with Steffen Peters and Scott Hassler. Lendon thankfully worked out a deal so that by volunteering we could watch the clinic. I didn’t work at Jackie’s so that I was able to go and I’m so glad I did! I got so much more out of the conference this year than I did last year. I left the conference on the first day with 8 full pages of notes, talk about quality horses and instruction!

Day 19 Tuesday January 21^st, 2014

Day 2 of the trainers’ conference!  The changes in the horses today from yesterday were really awesome. Today Steffen placed a lot of emphasis on the pirouettes, half steps and quality movement transitions. 5 pages of notes from today! Maybe when I need a filler blog post I’ll type up some of my notes.
We were suppose to have a lecture at 5 back at the stable but the scheduling got a little messed up so it was postponed in till tomorrow.

A few friends and I went to the South Florida Fair that evening to see Craig Morgan perform. It was great to get out of the barn and man can Craig put on a performance!

Day 20 Wednesday January 22^nd, 2014

8AM lecture with Laura King the life coach and hypnotist I mentioned in an earlier blog post. Today she talked about self talk and empowering yourself instead of being negative. I learned a lot and hope (I mean I will!)  to get in practice with it! I can, I can, I can, I can!
At 1PM we had a pilates workout with Janice Dulak, anyone in the Ocala area; I highly recommend working with her, it was pretty cool. She really focuses on the similarities of pilates to dressage horses, the collection that we require in our horses is equal to the strength and discipline we need to have in our own core. Imagine doing crunches or a plank for the duration of a Grand Prix test! I dare say I had fun!
I rode on my own today. Display had two days off due to the trainers’ conference. Any time I asked him to go forward he got really hollow in his back and was a bit resistant. I think his hocks are starting to act up again so we just did some easy stretching forward and down.
That evening we attended the US PRE party. They had multiple demonstrations to show the versatility of the breed and some pretty amazing food! The PRE’s are pretty cool little horses, if you don’t know much about the breed I encourage you to go do a little research on them, they are fascinating! 

Day 12-16

Day 12 Tuesday January 14^th, 2014

We worked on the changes a lot today. They started out rough but got better, Lendon gave me a super piece of information; keeping the old bend through the change instead of pulling his head to the new bend helps keep him straighter and more balanced, who would have thought! Half halts were better but corners, not so much. We did pretty decent for a Tuesday!

Our lecture was with Sue Stickle, she’s a professional photographer and shoots many top events like the CDIs at Global and Olympics. Her main topic was about copyrights and how they work.

 Fun facts: She began professionally in 1995. Her least favorite test to shoot is the Second level tests and if your Uncle John takes a picture on your camera it is his copyright, same with you using your sisters camera.

In the evening we went to ShowChic for a talk with Olympian Carol Lavell who told us about her journey to the Olympics on a horse that no one thought would go Grand Prix.

Day 13 Wednesday January 15^th 2014

Display felt all over the place in our lesson today, being straight was definitely not on his to do list today! He was hard to keep consistent and giving, he was anticipating the changes so we skipped them for today. We did a lot of trot work, mixing lateral and lengthening together sort of like how they are in the tests.
In the morning one of the other girls and myself went to Chris Hickey’s farm on the other side of Wellington to watch Morten Thompsen teach. He uses a lot of in-hand work to teach half steps and to improve the expression in the trot, his training is very straight forward and clear. His methods are really cool and it gave me a little inspiration to start doing more in-hand work with my horse!
Our scheduled lesson got cancelled so we had a brief one with Lendon on the aids for all of the dressage movements.

Day 14 Thursday January 16^th 2014

Super ride today! I worked on keeping my hands really steady and adjusting him from my fingers and wrists so that everything was a bit quieter. We did some awesome lateral work than moved onto a little bit of pirouette work that’s in Fourth level test 2. I’m starting to feel like I can ride and keep him together a bit more, it’s really exciting!
We were invited to go to Tuny Page’s GORGEOUS Still Point farm to watch Nicholas Fyff and other top riders train. Nicholas is such a lovely rider, he showed us his PRE Stallion Fiero HGF bred by Kim Boyer, owner of Hampton Green Farm and a brentina cup horse he has in for training for resale.

All of us WITees do get out of the barn and have fun sometimes: Lendon sponsored a few teams to participate in the 2^nd annual Vinceremos Therapudic riding “Buck Off” competition.
Teams of 4 ride a mechanical bull for 15 seconds in hopes to score as many style points as they can. We all had a blast and of course did well!

Day 15 Friday January 17^th, 2014

Today we got the amazing opportunity to visit Olympian Tina Konyot’s farm. She showed us her Olympic mount Collecto, an upcoming Grand Prix horse Wyoming and her newly imported young horse Diamond. Her background is very interesting, her father Alex Konyot was a phenomenal animal trainer and worked for the Ringling Brothers Circus.

Today was a hack day so I took Display out to the front field and just did some walking and trotting to get him moving.

Day 16 Saturday January 18^th, 2014

Today was our first WIT schooling show, I rode Display in a 4-2 test. Even though I showed him Third level over the Summer this felt like a huge jump. It’s pretty funny, once Display is braided he totally goes into show mode and turns into this really awesome horse J
The test went pretty well, I don’t think I rode it as well as I could have. The first pirouette and change were good, second pirouette we got stuck in so we went off course to try it again, the trot work was decent but have to practice the extensions and mediums so that we can be bolder in the show ring.

One of the WIT girls gave her lecture on trail riding and she did a super job! Each week one of us has to give a 20ish minute lecture on a subject of our choice. Luckily I don’t have to do mine in till March!

I will have another post ready by tomorrow night, by then I should be caught up!
Hopefully the next one will have pictures too!

I hope everyone is staying warm, we started out at 45* but made it up to 70* today.

Day 9-11

Day 9 Saturday January 11^th, 2014

In our lesson today Jaime helped us with our changes, that got him pretty supple and light from the start. Also worked on pirouettes, I need to prepare him A LOT more for them to come out smooth but overall they were good. Definitely realized the need of good half halts during this ride, we are going to start working on them with a TON of transitions.  I have to start riding each change like there is one coming right after it, it might sound simple but man is it hard!

Our workout today was all about the legs! You know it’s been a good workout when you can feel the burn all day long.
The afternoon lecture was with Elisabeth Williams who is an FEI Technical Delegate (TD). A TD is there to help the rider and make sure everything goes smoothly and ethically in the warm up. Their code is: Help – Prevent – Intervene.

Day 10 Sunday January 12^th 2014

Worked mostly on my own today, on changes and pirouettes while Lendon was watching (I sound like a broken record don’t I? Sorry!). Overall it was a great ride; I was able to use my back more with a quicker response so that was exciting!

In the afternoon we went to a local Pilates studio. The stretching and exercises felt amazing but left me a little sore later on in the day!
No lecture today L

Day 11 Monday January 13^th 2014

Ready for a REALLY short day entry? It must be Monday!
I worked most of the day, did some homework in the afternoon and after work in the PM did more homework with Grace!

Big blog post tomorrow night!!